Part 7 (2/2)

She could feel the wolf's hot breath on the back of her hand as he sniffed her. And then she felt the curious sensation of his tongue lapping at it.

Joey chuckled. ”I guess you pa.s.sed.”

Annja let her hand wander up behind Cheehawk's ears and ran her fingers through his coa.r.s.e fur. It was almost like patting a big dog, but not quite. Even though Cheehawk seemed to have accepted her, Annja couldn't shake the idea that this animal could easily tear her throat out if it wanted to.

Joey shook his head. ”Don't believe that.”

Annja looked at him. ”What?”

”Cheehawk would only attack if he felt threatened, just the same as you.” He smiled at Annja. ”Don't look so surprised. The expression on your face was enough for me to figure out what you were thinking.”

”Oh. Well, this is a bit new for me.”

Joey nodded. ”For Cheehawk, too. You're only the second human he's let pet him.”

”Really?”

”I'm the first,” Joey said proudly.

”I'm honored, then,” Annja said. She looked into Cheehawk's eyes. ”Thank you.”

Cheehawk rose without making a sound, looked once at Annja and then at Joey, before turning and stalking off into the night.

”Where's he going?”

Joey got to his feet. ”I told you. He's looking for his dinner.”

Annja stood, awed by what had just happened. Then she thought about why she was even in the Oregon woods in the first place. ”We need to find Jenny. If she wasn't able to make a fire, she might die of exposure out here.”

Joey frowned. ”All right, but we've got to be careful. Those lunatics with the guns are probably still around. And I don't feel like running into them.”

Annja got her gear from under the canopy. Despite the awful sounds, very little of her stuff was damaged at all. She emerged and saw Joey standing on the trail.

”Ready?” the young man asked.

Annja nodded. It was still terribly dark and she had no idea how they were going to find their way. But Joey didn't seem to notice and before she knew what was happening, they were headed down the trail.

Chapter 5.

”How long have your people lived here?”

Joey picked his way along the path without making a sound. Annja marveled at his ability to stay quiet. He was very much every bit his namesake.

”Hundreds of years. We're a splinter group of Apache.”

”Apache? I thought that tribe was from the Southwest,” Annja said.

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